Junior Minister calls for end to poultry row

INTERVENTION by the Department of Agriculture and Food or the EU in fixing prices paid to poultry farmers has been ruled out by the Government.

There is a free market in the sale of poultry, explained Michael Ahern, Junior Minister with special responsibility for trade and commerce.

He was commenting in a Senate debate on the price dispute between chicken farmers and Castlemahon Poultry Products in West Limerick.

Noting that picketing of the poultry processing company’s plant had ceased, he urged the parties to come together and work towards a satisfactory solution.

Minister Ahern said it is important that margins be available for all parts of the industry, at production and processing level, and that quality be encouraged and rewarded. He expressed concern that any lost market share may fall into the hands of importers.

Senator Michael Finucane raised concerns regarding the supply of broiler chickens to Castlemahon.

Most of the 28 members of the West Limerick Co-op Poultry Producers Association had stopped supplying.

Senator Finucane said farmers get 30.85 cent from Castlemahon Poultry Products. The farmers estimate their profit margin is around five cent, uneconomic if they are making repayments on a poultry unit.

“A big part of the problem is that management will not talk to them as a unit in order to discuss their difficulties”, said Senator Finucane.